Immigrant dragons in Lea are more likely to prey upon humanoids than bond with them as Riders due to either the lack of a powerful native threat, for even in Bogach the mighty Tarn linnorms typically slumber, or because they were recruited to join the native ruling species, as with the Psiwyrms of Meithleorai.

In Bogach, most immigrants can hide or hold their own against the Mist drakes. Thus, they carve out lairs at the fringes of Mist territory. The Mists can either tolerate the newly shared hunting grounds or attempt to drive out the immigrants, which occasionally succeeds. These immigrants treat those humanoids they encounter as prey.

In Mariskaz, as long as they stay out of the water, immigrants quickly become the dominant dragon of their territory. Those that attempt to take a watery territory find that the Peludas will attack en masse and incessantly until they have killed the intruder, regardless of the cost of Peluda life.

Immigrants in Meithleorai are taken in by the Psiwyrms and made a deadly part of their infrastructure. The strongest are allotted territory on which they may do as they please. Newer, weaker immigrants are herded onto this territory as prey. Those who defy the Psiwyrms may find themselves here as well.

Due to the delicate balance of the ecosystem, the Golds of Zabana ask all immigrants to move to the salt flats. While some do comply, others must be driven off by force. Those who survive contend with the Salt drakes to claim the hunting grounds necessary for survival.

Dragonriders in Lea
The hostility of the immigrant dragons and that of the dragons in most regions of Lea have resulted in an absence of Riders in Bogach, Mariskaz, and Meithleorai. The Golds of Zabana, however, occasionally take Riders.

An exceptional humanoid can sometimes attract the attention of the Golds. They can be rewarded by being taken as a Rider by one of the Golds. This marks their exit from humanoid society and entrance into dragon society. Their bonded dragon is their patron and held responsible for their actions. Should the humanoid offend the Golds, both they and their patron are banished to the salt flats.

Nome is unique in Colossus for being the only continent left on the planet not only full of the remnants of old city but surfeited with them. A mass expanse of unbroken but mostly abandoned city sprawls from north to south and east to west across the continent. The cityscape along the east of Nome has flooded, but the many tall buildings render the east still inhabitable. Plants grow in, out, and through the buildings, sometimes crushing them in their coils and other times providing new support.

Moreover, Nome is the largest immigrant refuge on the planet. There are more immigrants here than native species as well as a greater number of immigrants than on any other continent in Colossus. Immigrants have carved out enormous districts of Nome to claim for those of their kind.

Rope dragons and Calligraphy Wyrms are the only dragons and kind that can be found in the city ruins throughout the entire continent. Rope dragons typically maintain their shape-shifted stealth, shifting out only to abscond with the remains of food from other dragons to eat. Calligraphy Wyrms, however, work with other dragons, acting as the record and lorekeepers of their deeds. As the work of the Calligraphy Wyrm tends to appeal to the pride of dragons, these diminutive dragons are not attacked and may even be protected by the subject of their lore.

Meanwhile, humanoids have been effectively eradicated from the cityscapes of Nome. There are rumors of humanoid sightings, but the Calligraphy Wyrms have had trouble confirming the truth of any of these rumors. Should a humanoid be discovered, they could prove a rare delicacy or a curiosity depending on the dragon.

Guardian District
Guardian dragons’s combined territories form Nome’s Guardian District, a massive strip from the frozen north to the searing south right down the center of Nome. Guardians combine the already labyrinthine nature of the city ruins with the labyrinth of their extradimensional dungeons to keep all who wander in lost and trapped within the shifting walls. They’ve cultivated an entire ecosystem of non-draconic life within the Guardian District this way. They ensure that those who enter and those born here can never leave.

Mithral District
Mithral dragons have claimed the cityscape of northeastern Nome, east of the Guardian strip and north of their generally non-hostile, temperate Star drake neighbors. Decades of Mithral-exclusive hunting and occupation of the district has left mithral shards embedded in every wall and gap-eyed window above the layers and layers of snow. Thus the district shines in the sunlight with a potentially blinding radiance. In the moon and starlight of the arctic winters, the buildings appear to glow with the light of aurora borealis itself.

Star District
The amicable, curious Star drakes have rendered their district in eastcentral Nome a true metropolis if homogeneous in society. While they have not devoted brainpower to creating new technology, they have restored utilities to their original functions and light up the night sky with artificial lights. They are still territorial overlords who survive by hunting, however, and all who live or enter into their district are fair game.

Elder District
In the tropical southeast below the Star district and beside the southern tip of the Guardian strip lies the territories claimed by the two-headed, six-legged Elder Wyrms. The Elder Wyrms lure the unwary into their district by hibernating for decades, long enough that the creatures forget why there is no threat dragons in this district. When their territories have filled with plentiful life, the Elder Wyrms rise and devour all in a massive bloodbath that leaves few if any survivors.

Pattern District
The ophidian Scitalises have taken the cityscape of frozen, northwestern Nome. What became the Pattern district after their occupation was not their first choice, but it was the only territory left unclaimed by the other, stronger dragons and kind. Few creatures live in this arctic desert, leaving the Scitalises with little choice but to hunt the small arctic prey and turn to cannibalism when this proves insufficient.

Plague District
Nome’s diseased mass of Taninivers has taken the cityscape of westcentral Nome between the Scitalises to the north, the Guardians to the east, and the Vishaps to the south. The Taninivers’s neighbors conspire to keep the Plague District from expanding its already too-large bounds by any means necessary, usually destruction and the death of Taninivers and others infected. Dragons throughout Nome use the Plague District as a threat and place of exile for the offenders of their societies. Most of those exiled here never live long enough to contract the disease, however, as the Taninivers view them simply as prey.

Ley District
Vishaps have claimed the arid, searing southwest cityscape of Nome, for while it is barren, dusted, and deserted, it houses the central nexus of all ley lines on the continent. The Ley District is none other than the ley capital of Colossus. The lines that spring from the nexus spread and weave throughout every last corner of the continent. With the Taninivers and their Plague to the north, however, Vishaps have become the most furious guardians of the lines and opponents of the Taninivers. They fear their neighbors may pollute the lines with their disease. They are the first responders against any incursion of Taninivers and continuously attempt negotiations with the other dragons of Nome in an effort to rid the continent of the Plague District and their denizens but have thus far made little headway, the other dragons more preoccupied by the affairs within their own districts.

Dragonriders in Nome
Dragonriders are unheard of in Nome due to the lack of humanoids on the continent.

When the continent of Root sunk into the Sea of Colossus, the waves left only shallow stretches of land exposed above the sea and the rest tidepools. In essence, this has created a continental surface of shallow coasts. The temperate Strant forms the northern stretch of rocky coasts and tidepools.

Bronze dragons keep the peace between the Mist and Sea drakes, both of whom refuse to respect the territory claimed by the other drake species. The aggressive Seas openly defy Mists. The Mists, however, are conniving, and use speedy stealth strikes to take what prey they want regardless of territory.

The Bronzes have realized the futility of attempting to prevent every such infraction. Instead, a group of Bronzes monitors their jurisdiction for larger scale conflicts between full rampages of Mists and Seas. They put a stop to these struggles and their potentially devastating consequences to Strant, using violence if they must to drive the Mists and Seas back to their own territories.

The Bronzes also ensure that the drakes don’t overstrain the resources within their jurisdictions, including the hunting of humanoids. While the Bronzes permit this hunting to an extent, they defend Strant’s aquatic humanoids when the drakes become too aggressive. This has led many humanoid clans to give sacrifices to the Bronzes to present to the drakes instead of having the drakes claim members of the clan by chance.

While the hunting and gathering clans of Strant don’t openly war with one another, some kidnap members of another clan to offer to the Bronzes as sacrifices. This has led to kidnapping vendettas between these clans, often with the spoken or unspoken approval of the clan elders.

Bakiz
Native species: Tidepool dragon, Sea drake

Bakiz comprises the tropical south of Root. Like the temperate north, Bakiz is a region of tidepools surrounded by coastlines to the east, south, and west. The land peaks at a ridge between the temperate and tropical zone and gradually descends further into the Sea of Colossus, creating a coastal shelf encrusted by coral reef below the waters.

Unchecked by Bronzes or other powerful rivals, Sea drakes have free reign over the Bakiz shallows, and theirs is a reign of lightning-fuelled tyranny. The inbred Seas band together in rampages that swim everywhere over Bakiz, hunting, killing, and engaging other rampages in brutal combat over territory to be abandoned as freely as it was entered.

Tidepool dragons don’t dare oppose the mightier Sea drakes and instead make their best attempt at stealth while the rampage of Seas swims through. Unlike the Seas, Tidepools have a strictly defined sense of territory and, once claimed, they never leave such territory by choice. Tidepools are sometimes displaced from their territory when they must flee from preying Sea drakes.

Aquatic humanoids of Bakiz often forge an alliance with a displaced Sea drake, offering the protection of a group. The hunting and gathering groups in Bakiz are small, however, no larger than a family.

These families travel to keep from being discovered by Sea drakes and to follow their food sources. Fortunately, the great coral reefs surrounding Bakiz have cultivated a diverse flora and fauna, so these families are rarely in danger of starvation.

When a family encounters another, the two often make arrangements to meet again at a set time for mating with the males typically joining the female’s family in order to provide additional protection for the pregnant female and the new generation. The entire family raises the new generation.

Deep below Strant, Bakiz, and the tides of the Sea of Colossus lies the massive, subterranean heart of the sunken continent. Hidden sea caverns provide the entrance into the cavern, but one must travel far through the perilous tunnels to enter the upper layer of Root, which sits just below the underground river rapids. Each successive layer of the underground complex is hotter and less oxygenated than the last. While this promotes hibernation of the deepest dragon denizens, it does nothing to hold them back once they’ve awoken.

Glass Wyrms occupy and proliferate the first and uppermost layer of Root just below the underground river rapids. The dripping mineral water has created a mass of caverns toothed with stalactites and stalagmites. The Glass Wyrms have incorporated these natural formations into the twisting, winding corridors they create within the caverns while mining for gemstones to consume. Their broken-glass-like scales embed within the mineral floors, walls, and sometimes cavern ceilings. They reflect any light within their lairs to dazzling and even blinding magnitude. Glass Wyrms keep to their own lairs, but vicious territorial battles have erupted when one trepasses into the lair of another even if by accident.

Prism dragons control the second layer of root, and theirs is truly control. They use their psychic abilities and illusions to create an alternate reality in the minds of the subterranean humanoids that make up their treasure hoard. Each Prism subjects their hoard to a different false reality. They congregate at regular intervals to compare notes on the state of their hoard. Meanwhile, their humanoids have no idea that they’re part of a study hoard controlled by Prism dragons. They’re not even aware of the presence of Prisms in this layer of Root. Depending on the illusions of the hoard, some of them don’t realize that they’re underground either.

The third layer of Root is the realm of the Dungeon dragons. Much like the Prisms above, they have amassed hoards not of treasure but subterranean humanoids. Their greatest pleasure is to force these humanoids to traverse the trapped and monster-populated labyrinth of their lairs, promising freedom to those who survive to the end. Instead of freedom, however, the surviving humanoids are passed on to the Dungeon’s latest project labyrinth of horrors. As Dungeons prefer to flee rather than to fight, when they infrequently encounter another of their kind while carving out new labyrinths, they tend to ignore one another and turn tail, excavating in opposite directions.

The fourth and darkest layer of Root, just above the lava flows, belongs to the eyeless Cave dragons. They earth glide through the caverns of their territory, hunting and eating anything they might come across. Despite their intelligence, these dragons are slaves to their own hunger and will not stop themselves from wiping out entire populations if they should find them. At times, this leaves the Caves with little choice but to cannibalize and hibernate.

The fifth and deepest habitable layer of Root is lit by the fires and lava from the core of Colossus. Here rule the Imperial Underworld dragons. Intelligent and organized, they hibernate in rotations so that all territory belonging to one family of Imperial Underworlds is always guarded by members of that family. Wyrms and wyrmlings are paired for their rotation, as are the very young and the ancients, the juvenile and the very old, the young adult and the old, and the adults and mature adults. While each family claims to respect the territory of another family, they keep watch for any sign of weakness, at which they will gladly kill the guarding Imperial Underworlds and murder all those hibernating in order to add to their territory.

The majority of subterranean humanoids of Root belong either to the hoards of the Prisms on the second layer or the hoards of the Dungeons on the third. Some escape to the first layer above or the fourth layer below. Few live long enough to adapt to the low-temperature humidity and blinding glasscapes of the first layer or the increased heat and deeper darkness of the fourth.

Humanoids in both Prism and Dungeon hoards are kept in manageable groups, their populations in between a small village and a large town. Those in Prism hoards never see the dragons in their true forms and most do not realize they’re trapped underground with their societies subtly shaped by the whims of their hidden masters. Those in Dungeon hoards live a life of constant confinement, fear, and testing--they are very aware that they are at the whim of their subterranean tyrants.

Few of the denizens of Root can oppose Guardian dragon and Elder Wyrm immigrants. Strant’s Bronze dragons and the deep-dwelling families of Imperial Underworld dragons are some of the few who, in their groups, can expel and even hunt Guardians or Elder Wyrms on their territory. Everywhere else, these dragons take what they will and utterly destroy those who do not flee far and fast enough. Prism dragons are especially sensitive to incursions of Guardians and Elder Wyrms with those driven off becoming objects of wretched pity to the others for losing their hoards.

Mithral dragons gravitate toward the mineral-, metal-, and gem-rich mines of the underground Root over the coastal Strant and Bakiz. While their first instinct is to negotiate territory, they must at times take it by force from the Glass Wyrms. The shining, glittering caverns of the first layer of Root utterly captivate the Mithrals so that few attempt to delve deeper.

Vishaps follow the ley lines. While the Bronzes prevent them from settling in Strant, they have little trouble acquiring territory in Bakiz and the first and second layers of Root. Some unfortunate Vishaps are drawn by the signs of greater ley lines in the depths of Root only to encounter a Dungeon or Cave Great Wyrm. Those who survive to reach the lowest depths of Root are mercilessly hunted and killed by a family of Imperial Underworlds.

The universally hated taninivers are the one factor that will unite even the most solitary and separatist of the continent’s dragons. At the first sight of a taniniver, all observing dragons attack the single, diseased target with the intent to kill. Despite these desperate efforts, the non-diseased dragons are not always successful. That territory claimed by the surviving taniniver becomes a blighted place which all dragons avoid. Like the plague.

Dragonriders in Root
Immigrant dragons are most likely to bond with Riders in the deeper layers of Root, as few meet true opposition in Bakiz. What opposition they receive from the Bronze dragons of Strant tends only to be sufficient force to drive them to Bakiz.

Riders are unheard of in Bakiz due to Sea drakes’s general hostility toward the aquatic humanoids and the tiny size of the Tidepool dragons.

Riders in Strant are rare, but some humanoids, usually those ostracized within their own clan, leave the clan to seek out the Bronze dragons. If the humanoid can find favor with the Bronze, they may end up as a Rider. If the humanoid cannot or loses favor before bonding, they become one of the sacrifices.

Riders in Root are exceedingly rare. Most dragons of Root prefer to lord it over humanoids from a distance, and those humanoid hoards of the Prism dragons aren’t even aware of the presence of dragons. On those rare occasions that bonding occurs, it is to an immigrant dragon on the verge of death by the hands of the native dragons.

The arctic north of Sine is Kels, a region of broken glaciers at its northmost that drift and collide over time with its frozen cliffs, a bond by cold and ice. The massive surface of snows over the cliffs extends down into the north of the continent. Earthquakes have created gouging rifts in the snow, icy crevasses that drop through centuries worth of frozen precipitation to seemingly no end. These rifts score the entirety of Kels to create a glacial landscape of pseudo and deathly hills and vales.

Cairn linnorms, eaters of the undead, were once the rulers of Kels. Ever since the fall of humanoid kind, the number of undead has been on the decline, sending more and more Cairns into hibernation deep within the rifts. Now the Ice linnorms have taken control of most of the north and theirs is a ravenous tyranny.

The Ices prey with insatiable hunger on all beings in their territories, including other linnorms and dragonkind. They have all but wiped out the humanoids who once lived here in their unchecked feeding and have nearly done the same with Crag linnorms and Ice drakes.

Unlike the Mist and Spire drakes, the Crag linnorms and Ice drakes of Kels stand out by their bold or perhaps brash hunting methods in spite of the Ice linnorms who have claimed the territory on which they hunt. The Crags and Ice drakes would rather suffer the wrath and hunger of the Ice linnorms than their own hunger for food is scarce in Kels. The Ice linnorms have unintentionally made sure of that. As a result, hibernation has become the increasingly common resort.

The Mist and Spire drakes have chosen hibernation with their respective rampages. They wake, independently of the other species, at intervals in years to leave their hidden lairs to hunt in stealth from the Ice linnorms.

As one heads south, the frozen rifts of the north give way to true hills and valleys in the temperate central region of Sine known as Ondaga. Eastern Ondaga is home to heaths and moors whose shurbs thrive in the frequent rains. The further west the hills roll, the less scrub grows until they roll as barren mounds of stone.

Spine dragons rule the moorland of Ondaga with the iron fist of totalitarianism. They’ve parceled Ondaga into territories and within each territory, the reigning Spines have taken to indoctrinating all sentient species with the belief that they are gods. Their favorite subjects are humanoids and Spire drakes for their intelligence, for they can truly fear and worship a god.

The Spines keep their humanoid and Spire cultists in the same settlement, often with the humanoids in a village at the top of a hill and the Spires in the vale below or vice versa depending on their desired aesthetic. The humanoids are tasked with furthering the temple/lair of the Spines through mining or other construction means. The Spires serve as guards of the Spines and the settlement, but are encouraged to be suspicious of the humanoids to help prevent any uprisings. The humanoids fear the Spires, knowing that it is only by the will of their gods, the Spines, that the Spires have not devoured them.

The Spines have not attempted to tame the savage Wyverns and Flame drakes of Ondaga but have instead confined them to specific, strategic areas of their territory. As long as the Wyverns and Flames accept the sovereignty of the Spines, they are free to act as they will within their respective granted lands, including hunting and devouring unfaithful cultists released into these lands. Those flights who attempt to defy their Spine overlords are placed at the mercy of the Spines’s loyal rampages of Spire drakes.

The weaker Amphipteres and Fire drakes are easier for the Spines to cow, and many have cowed them into service. Those serving Amphipteres and Fires work in mining or construction efforts, providing light or carrying heavy loads. Those who serve are rewarded with hunting rights on choice grounds. Those few who don’t are ostracized and sent to territories by the Wyvern territories. The Spines are happy to turn a blind eye to any such Amphiptere or Fire death at the hands of the Wyverns.

Humanoids who aren’t among the cultist villages of the Spines either having escaped or been delivered to the Wyverns and miraculously escaped, can’t risk grouping larger than a family. They live as stealthy hunters and gatherers who change their abode when whatever pursuing them may come too close to discovery. These families or solitary humanoids have a very short life expectancy and a nearly nonexistent birth rate. On extremely rare occasions, a solitary humanoid or family can afford to allow another humanoid to join up with them with risk to the food supply or trackability.

The barren stone hills of Ondaga roll into volcanic mounds in the blisteringly hot south of Sine. This southern region of Samian was created by low-viscosity lava flows resulting in gently sloped but deadly hills also known as shield volcanoes. While these don’t erupt in huge, catastrophic explosions, lava flows are frequent and continuously adding to the heights of Samian’s scrub-covered hills.

Samian is the war zone of the Lava drakes who crawl out of the volcanoes and the Rift drakes who circle the dark, clouded skies overhead. Though the two could easily coexist, both are extremely territorial. Moreover, the Lavas blame the Rifts for the lack of humanoids in Samian, which leave them without a supply of cultists, while the Rifts merely enjoy combat and killing. Both travel in rampages large and deadly enough to oust Samian’s Copper dragons as the region’s dominant dragon.

At the time of the humanoids’s fall and Dragpocalypse’s inception, Cooper dragons designated themselves as the weakened humanoids’s keepers. They used combat, however, as a means of entrapping an audience for their extensive comedy routines sometimes lasting four hours at a stretch. One fateful day, the entire main force of the Coppers found themselves entertaining and the humanoids without any protection. The following onslaught by Rift rampages utterly wiped them out.

In their guilt, the Coppers have taken up the protection of their weaker draconic cousins, the Amphipteres and Pseudowyverns, but the lack of intelligent conversation is a constant burden upon their souls. Though kind to their wild draconic cousins, the Coppers tend to see and treat them as perma-toddlers.

Spire drakes stay on the single, small territory they’ve managed to keep from being claimed by the Lavas or the Rifts. They swarm these hills as a single, mega-rampage of defensive necessity. Their lawful tendencies have proven a boon here, as each Spire stays within its bounds, although they are always on the lookout for weakness. The first sign of such is enough to prompt the murder of a neighbor to obtain their land.

Unlike the Spires who stay on their territory by choice, the Wyverns have been herded onto a small territory by force. With the quick breeding of the relatively powerful beasts and their willingness to travel in large flights, the Lavas and Rifts have done all that they can to wipe out the Wyverns and failed. The most they can manage is to keep the majority of them off the best hunting grounds and savagely attack the flights that leave their designated area. The Wyverns, however, are having none of it and continue launching forays into the claimed territories.

Immigrants are more common in Kels than any other region of Sine due to the solitary nature of the Ice linnorms that rule its wastes. Guardian and Mithral dragons, Elder Wyrms, Taninivers, and Vishaps are more than a match for the Ices in solo combat. Star drakes and Scitalises, however, don’t stand a chance and, if discovered, are promptly consumed.

In Ondaga, Spine dragons alone would be unable to hunt the many of the mighty roaming immigrant dragons, but they have multiple forces at their command: besides their own rank and number, their loyal rampages of Spire drakes and the unchecked savagery of the Wyverns. These combined threats can take down even the likes of a Guardian dragon given enough time. As such, immigrants who enter Ondaga are eliminated sooner rather than later.

In Samian, immigrants are not eliminated so much as they are worn down by constant onslaughts by Rift and Lava drakes, and any chance rampage of Spire drakes or flight of Wyverns. Copper dragons, meanwhile, may take the opportunity to keep an immigrant dragon to themselves not to save their lives but to entrap them as a permanent, intelligent audience, even if they must fight said immigrant to do so. When an immigrant does manage to secure a territory, it is mostly likely from having bested their Copper dragon abductor.

Dragonriders in Sine
Riders are unheard of in Kels and Samian primarily due to the fact that humanoids are equally as unheard of. In Ondaga, no Spine dragon would ever bond with one of their humanoid cultists nor allow a humanoid to bond with any other of their subjects in order to maintain the balance of power. Thus, the much-hated immigrant dragons are more likely than any other draconic species to bond with a humanoid in Ondaga.

Stratus is an island continent that drifts through the skies of Colossus without ever touching down onto land or sea. Legend has it that Stratus came to be when the primordial god of dragons bound cloudmass in the heavens into a permanent shape. Although this god has been all but forgotten since before the onset of Dragpocalypse, life on the cloudmass has flourished, both flora and fauna. Plants unlike any seen on the continent proper growing on Stratus, their roots drawing water from the heart of the eternal cloud and their leaves absorbing the powerful sunrays within the upper limits of the troposphere.

Guardian dragons each control a territory full of architecture dedicated to the lost creator god of Stratus. Most of the buildings stand in ruins, but a rare few remain intact and these are guarded religiously. The solitary Guardians only stray from their territory if absolutely necessary, at times consuming only plant matter to sustain themselves to avoid hunting offsite.

Elder Wyrms are the sleeping nightmare of the denizens of Stratus. Though centuries can pass before one rouses from slumber, each period of Elder Wyrm Wakening rains a brief but near-apocalyptic tyranny of terror upon the denizens. None are truly safe from the hunting Elder Wyrms, and even the Guardians struggle to protect their territory from their ruthless, wanton onslaught of centuries of built-up hunger.

Mithral dragons are the only consistent governing force in Stratus. While they don’t impose their wills on the sentient denizens of the island, they do negotiate boundary disputes and the like to keep the peace and delicate ecological balance between the species. Even Stratus’s humanoids feel comfortable coming to the Mithrals as the designated arbiters.
Star drakes live in cluster upon cluster in their own metropolis at the southern tip of the island. Clusters are constantly coming and going from the settlement to the continents down below. The Stars keep records and travel logs of their journeys here. They have amiable relations with the Mithrals and humanoids on Stratus, but keep mostly to themselves and do not allow other species to settle in their metropolis.

Humanoids in Stratus are able to live as tribes in settlements as large as villages, but the delicate ecological balance on the cloudmass prevents them from expanding and even living too close to another tribe.

The tribes tend to support themselves through subsistence farming with additional hunting and gathering. Tribes are able to trade with each other, but the prevalence of contagious disease, especially between tribe animals, has discouraged such trade.

Although the settlements are far from each other, there are the occasional territorial disputes. When they arise, the Mithral dragons intervene to prevent war and settle the disputes as quickly as possible.

Dragonriders in Stratus
Most Riders in Stratus have bonded with Mithral dragons. Not only are the Mithrals the least hostile dragons, but with their regular intervention in the lives of humanoids, the humanoids have much more contact with Mitrals than other dragons.

Humanoids who develop an interest in the Mithrals can sometimes persuade the Mithrals to allow them to live with the dragons for a time. If they find favor with a dragon, the dragon will bond with them, but this does mean that the humanoid must forsake their life with their tribe forever.

The towering, volcanic mountain range that fills the entirety of Zenith begins in the frigid north, the region of Helkon. The rain from the eastern, mountainous coast can’t make it over the outermost mountains, but the height of the mountains in the center and on the west coast are covered in snow.

The peace and beauty Helkon’s snow white mountainscape is constantly challenged and broken by the unceasing war between the Imperial Sovereign dragons and the Tor linnorms. The conflict, which began around the time of Dragpocalypse’s own onset, has wrecked absolute devastation on the denizens of Helkon and the ecosystems on which they depend, driving many species into extinction, including Helkon’s humanoids.

This conflict over territory and, ultimately, supremacy, has split the other dragonkind in Helkon down the genetic line. The Ice linnorms have aligned themselves with the Tors while the White dragons and the Frost drakes under their influence have aligned with the Imperial Sovereigns. These alliances are not so much of choice as they are necessities of survival and a declaration of negative preference--the Ices would rather fight with the linnorms rather than with the dragons and vice versa for the dragons and drakes.

The one interesting outcome of this war is the sharing territory between allies. Rather than drawing strict territorial boundaries for each species, the linnorms hunt on a general linnorm territory while the dragons and drakes hunt on their own general territory.

The central mountainous region of Zenith, Oredis, exists in a temperate zone with torrential rains along the precipitous coastline and a dry west. The mountains of Oredis aren’t as tall as those of Helkon in the north but are much more volcanically active, resulting in almost eternal dark skies and black snows of water and ash.

Much like Helkon, the black-snowed peaks of Oredis are a war-torn battlescape between the Silver dragons and the Imperial Sovereign dragons. With the onset of Dragpocalypse, the Silvers quickly attempted to establish some semblance of order and protection for the weaker species, but the Imperial Sovereigns strained against the Silvers’s authoritarian methods, and territorial conflicts soon escalated to all-out war.

This war has lasted ever since and has only become more devastating with time. Unlike their neighbor to the north, though many species have been brought to extinction by the war, the lower altitude, rich soils, and less severe climate of Oredis has allowed humanoid species to hang on by a thread, though they have no true settlement of their own.

Humanoids have become tactical pawns in the war between the Silvers and Imperial Sovereigns, used as Riders to rapidly empower dragons on either side whether the humanoids like it or not in many cases. For the Silvers, it’s simply a matter of the greater good--they firmly believe that should the Imperial Sovereigns win, humanoids will be wiped out from Oredis. In the case of the Imperial Sovereigns, humanoids are kidnapped, brainwashed and bred to be living tools and weapons to their draconic masters.

Amphipteres and Flame drakes have been turned to scavengers by the war, descending on battlefields after the fact and living off the carnage. They present no real threat to either of Oredis’s superpowers and are all too happy to be ignored.

The sun bakes the canyons of the southern mountains in Piton, but as one ascends, the temperature cools enough to maintain permanent snows on the mountain tops. While the mountains of Piton are volcanic, rather than erupt, heat and pressure are released through the river-sized lava flows at the base of Piton’s canyons.

Due to an alliance between the Imperial Sky dragons and the Imperial Sovereign dragons, the Red dragons have been relegated to one small corner of the region. While the alliance has broken down with the Imperial Skys and the Imperial Sovereigns leaving each other to their own devices, both still rise up to aid each other whenever the Reds strain against the boundaries of their territory.

The Imperial Skys are the benevolent overlords of Piton, keeping a distant but watchful eye over the denizens. They ensure that all the draconic species keep to their own territories, a measure reinforced by the Imperial Sovereigns on the land. The Imperial Sovereigns, however, do so not out of care for all such species, but out of care for their own territory.

The Flame drakes and Rift drakes of Piton have no choice but to abide by the territorial boundaries set and protected by the Imperial Skys and the Imperial Sovereigns. The division of boundaries tends to keep humanoids away from the drakes, but those who trespass in the lands of the drakes are beyond any protection.

While the volcanic soils are rich, the mountains are impassable for humanoids, effectively trapping them in the village into which they are born. The villagers generally practice communal subsistence farming, supplemented by hunting and gathering limited by the territorial bounds of their community. Very few humanoids willingly outstep their bounds unless it is by accident. The worst punishment a villager might receive is banishment outside the safety of the community.

Helkon and Oredis are both too hostile to immigrants to keep them around for too long. Even native enemies will temporarily unite to keep immigrants from moving into the territory. While some of the immigrant draconic species are extremely powerful, they can stand against the combined might of the other dragons.

The Imperial Skys and Imperial Sovereigns of Piton are, comparatively, much more accommodating to immigrant dragons, to all but the Taninivers. Taninivers find themselves attacked not to be driven off but to be killed by any draconic species they encounter in Piton.

The Imperial Skys and Imperial Sovereigns allow the other immigrant draconic species into Piton so long as those dragons accept the territory given them by the Imperial Skys and Imperial Sovereigns and do not enter territorial warfare with their draconic neighbors. Doing so brings down the wrath of both the Imperial Skys and Imperial Sovereigns as well as the dragon kind nieghbor.

Dragonriders in Zenith
With humanoids driven to extinction in Helkon and Oredis, Piton is the only region of Zenith in which there are Riders. Although Riders are not common, occasionally, a humanoid settlement will pique the interest of an Imperial Sky or an Imperial Sovereign and establish rudimentary relations between the dragon and the villagers.

Those who become Riders leave their life in the village behind for the most part in order to keep company with the patrolling dragon.

Part 13: Dragons in Space
Places of Interest: Solcano (Solaris), Sea of Dust and Bowl (Lunarium)

Solaris
Native species: Solar dragon

Solaris is the single sun of planet Colossus’s solar system. It is just powerful and distant enough to maintain the balance that keeps Colossus’s ecosystem from rapidly devolving to food for worms.

Solar dragons are the sole dragonkind inhabiting Solaris, which is all the better for other dragons. Though lawful, they consider themselves the supreme rulers of the entire solar system and have constructed a rigid hierarchy for themselves on Solaris.

At the height of the Solar hierarchy are the Judges, the Great Wyrms. They are revered like gods by the younger generations and while they rarely rise from their slumber at the center of the sun itself, the Solars may call upon their council for the final word on an important matter.

The Wyrms rule the territories into which they’ve divided Solaris with one Wyrm per territory. Only when the ruling Wyrm becomes a god incarnate as a Great Wyrm will a successor be chosen from the Ancient Solars. The other Ancients will be dismissed from the territory to find their own or to journey into space to find a new sun to inhabit or planet in need of a god.

Lunarium is a small moon of gray rock and no atmosphere. Its gravity is far weaker than Colossus’s and its temperatures far more extreme. Its barren stone surface has been pitted and cratered by asteroid and other collisions.

Time dragons serve as the keepers of Lunarium society, preventing the Void dragons from warring with the other dragon species, most of whom, apart from the Times, use Lunarium as a base and way station for their interstellar journeys. The Times are always watching as they drift across the black skies of the moon like keen-eyed clouds. When they spot a disturbance, only then will they descend to ensure that no threat has been made against the natural order which they protect.

Void dragons typically struggle with their need to feed and destroy and thus only come to the Times-protected Lunarium in order to heal or rest without disturbance. They tend to stay no longer than absolutely necessary.

Lunar dragons are much the opposite of the Voids. They permanently reside on the moon where they have an unimpeded view of the mortals on Colossus. They find the greatest entertainment in watching these mortals and discussing their findings with other Lunars. Many of them place bets on outcomes of war and other activities, but they never directly interfere.

Vortex dragons have the most hustling and bustling of the territories on Lunarium. They are always coming and going on voyages through space, and many even serve as messengers for other entities in the great beyond. With their busy schedules, they have time for neither war nor interference with the affairs of others.

Immigrants and Dragonriders
While there are rumors of other dragon species and even humanoids, much less Riders, in the vacuum of space, there have been none officially documented as of the writing of this unofficial guide to Dragpocalypse.